He started to apologize again, but Jenn came on the line, sounding only slightly less tense than her partner.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry to bug you guys, but would it be cool if I went straight home and dropped the car off at ACG in the morning?”

He could practically hear Jenn’s eyes rolling, so he started into a story about wanting to catch Ellie’s soccer game this afternoon. She cut him off and said it was fine.

“Is George there yet?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

“Really think he’s going to sleep in that shit-box motel?”

Jenn forced a laugh. It sounded hollow and joyless. She agreed that it would be funny.

“Well, take pictures for me. That I have to see.”

She hung up without another word.

He stared at his phone quizzically. So Jenn and Hendricks had locked themselves inside an abandoned self-storage facility along Route Godforsaken. Putting aside the basic weirdness of that statement for a moment, how did they get in there and lock the gate behind them? He was just about to walk the perimeter and look for a second entrance when he noticed that a section of razor wire had been cut away some fifty feet from the main gate—easy enough to miss from the roadway.

He walked alongside the wall, dragging his hand along the smooth surface. In theory, the gap was wide enough for one person to cross through, but the top of the wall was ten feet high and even an experienced climber needed handholds. You would need . . . a ladder.

Something yellow in the underbrush caught his eye. He trotted over for a look and was lucky not to trip and gouge himself on the missing section of razor wire. He saw it at the last second, coiled like a snake in the tall grass, wickedly sharp, and he had to pirouette awkwardly to avoid it. He lost his balance and, backpedaling, caught his heel on something solid and went down hard on his back.

He lay there wincing until the pain faded, then sat up to look at the brand-new extension ladder he had fallen over.

What the hell is going on?

He was still contemplating that question when a length of rope flew over the wall from inside the compound. It hung a foot off the ground, swaying back and forth. Gibson stared at it stupidly for a moment. He scrambled to his feet, barely making it behind a tree before Jenn threw her leg over the top of the wall and shimmied down the rope to the ground. She called out that she was down, and the rope disappeared back over the wall.